Summer 1999
Message from Executive Director

john a. powell

Communities of color must understand the repercussions of political fragmentation and regionalism without representation

The problems associated with concentrated poverty and racial segregation are created and intensified by fragmentation and urban sprawl. Phenomena such as white flight and more recently, middle-class black flight, result in capital disinvestment in affected neighborhoods, which contribute to a decline in the quality of schools, adds to joblessness, increases social isolation, and ultimately leads to family breakdown, increased crime, and substance abuse.
Although these problems most directly affect neighborhoods that are racially segregated and extremely poor, they also affect the quality of life for residents throughout a given metropolitan region. The problems of poor, segregated communities sap the economic and social strength not only of the residents of those particular neighborhoods, but also of the larger community.

Historically, solutions to these complex and inter-related problems have been developed locally, and have not adequately addressed the root problems, which are regional in nature. When regional approaches have been implemented, input from poor communities of color has been lacking, the underlying racial causes have been ignored, and the efforts have been ineffective in solving the problems of these communities. Race and racism are central to understanding many of the dynamics of regionalism.

Often, public policies written and implemented by balkanized metropolitan governments isolate minorities and the poor from the resources available in the suburbs. Government fragmentation masks the financial and social interdependence of the suburbs and their center city and supports segregationist policies, which directly or indirectly prevent minorities from moving to other neighborhoods while segregationist attitudes influenced by the media and public policy deter whites from moving to the center city. Such segregation both isolates the very poor from opportunities for self-advancement outside of the city core and isolates more mainstreamed citizens from their cultural center.

Regional issues - such as infrastructure expansion, employment, housing, taxation, and education - require regional approaches if they are to be equitable and effective. Instead, these issues have been addressed by policies through which affluent residents of exclusive, usually outer-ring suburbs reap the benefits of their location without shouldering any of the burdens. Any attempt to adequately address concentrated poverty must mediate the regional forces of sprawl and fragmentation. This requires the creation of strong regional policies and/or governmental bodies to impede the outward push of development and address the inequalities that currently exist.

The problem with traditional regionalism

Regionalism has faced criticism from many sides of the political spectrum. Many communities of color believe that local control affords them their only chance to elect candidates of color and control part of the political process, even if that control diminishes opportunities, such as high-quality schools or living-wage jobs. These communities also have a legitimate concern that regionalism would diminish the political and cultural base of minority communities by either weakening the political power of the central cities or by dispersing the minority population throughout the region.

While this fear is understandable, two realities ought to be considered. One is that the political base of poor communities of color currently has been unable to slow urban sprawl or the rise in concentrated poverty. The other is that it is possible to integrate regional decision-making with local control, thus enabling local groups to maintain a great deal of autonomy, while operating within a regional resource-sharing structure.

Communities of color are often brought to the table after the fact, when agendas have already been developed, and questions already framed - or when policymakers, legislators, and other decision makers in positions of power have already decided upon solutions to local problems, effectively stifling the voices of these groups. This pattern has led to distrust by communities of color toward the suburban groups that tend to control regional strategies.

Bringing communities of color into the dialogue

The needs and concerns of these communities must become an integral part of the questions raised when problems and opportunities are being identified. Early proactive involvement will ultimately have a direct impact on the solutions developed for the problems that exist within the urban core and throughout the surrounding areas.
"Federated Regionalism" starts from the premise that a number of important inner-city issues can only be adequately addressed at the regional level and that the failure to do so negatively affects the entire regions. At the same time, it attempts to balance the need for an integrated regional approach with the desire for local control, particularly by communities of color. In this model, areas of regulation that are regional in their impact (housing, taxation, and infrastructure) are confronted regionally, and other areas best left to local political institutions are dealt with locally.

Effective regional approaches require - among other things - an understanding of an area's demographics, organizing on a community level, and support from the area's religious, philanthropic, and business leaders and the media. In particular, it requires support from people of color. The key is to create a federated regional approach that is sensitive to the legitimate concerns of the minority community. Examples of federated regionalism are already working, in limited ways, in a variety of metropolitan areas, including Montgomery County, Md.; Minneapolis/Saint Paul, Minn.; and Portland, Ore.

Despite successes, minorities have cause to be wary of regional solutions to the problems of segregation and concentrated poverty. What little political power they wield seems at risk of dilution if regionalism further fragments their communities. Federated regionalism, however, offers minorities hope that their interests will not be compromised, but augmented. Some tension between local concerns and the needs of a whole metropolitan region is unavoidable and even healthy. Structuring these tensions in a way that leads to true democratic cooperation in metropolitan planning - cooperation that even transcends racial polarization - is the challenge.

Affordable Housing Task Force Makes Recommendations

An increasing number of families, including many working families, are shouldering the affordable housing crisis. Without long-term aggressive action, the crisis will deteriorate into catastrophe.

In an effort to provide both short- and long-term planning, the Minneapolis Affordable Housing Task Force was created by the Minneapolis City Council. Low-income residents, housing advocates, nonprofit housing developers, government officials, and representatives from the private sector convened to develop recommendations and strategies to combat the problem.

The task force was chaired by IRP Executive Director john powell. The group quantified the need for affordable housing in Minneapolis, and proposed an aggressive short-term plan that is achievable in the next five years.

Broadly, the task force sought the vision of healthy, stable, mixed-income neighborhoods developed throughout the City of Minneapolis, resulting in a notable increase in the availability of affordable housing. Additionally, the task force pursued a general strategy to recommend different approaches for different neighborhoods. The report the task force produced, which is available in its entirety at www.mcda.org, stressed both the needs to preserve and revitalize investment in "impacted" neighborhoods that already have affordable housing, as well as the need for investment in new affordable housing production in "non-impacted" areas."

The task force proposed seven priorities, as well as a wide range of working strategies, to guide the short-term and long-term plans to alleviate the affordable housing crisis. They include:

1) Preserve Existing Affordable Housing;
2) Increase and Target New Housing Production
3) Dramatically Increase Investment in Affordable Housing;
4) Educate the Public About Affordable Housing Issues;
5) Monitor Affordable Housing Issues, Trends and Needs;
6) Support efforts to provide for the needs of the homeless and precariously housed; and
7) Lead by Example in the Metropolitan Region.

On July 28, the Affordable Housing Task Force met with the Minneapolis City Council to discuss the recommendations. "They asked a lot of questions, and of course the big question is money, but the city was generally responsive and supportive,"said john powell, chair of the task force. According to powell, the recommendations are aggressive enough. "Given the political climate, they could even be too aggressive, but it's a good start." As this newsletter went to press, the city council was continuing to actively consider the recommendations.

National Researcher William Trent shares evidence of the benefits of integrated education

Research shows that concentrations of poverty and minorities, teacher efficacy and tracking have an impact on minority student outcomes, according to an April 30 presentation by national researcher and expert witness, Dr. William Trent, associate chancellor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Trent says research provides strong evidence that "educational equity is a goal to be achieved" and that there are demonstrated benefits in working toward desegregation. Trent's presentation was sponsored by the Institute on Race & Poverty (IRP) at the University of Minnesota Law School to stimulate public understanding and debate regarding the state's new "desegregation rule," which now stipulates that schools must actively pursue segregation to be in violation of state laws. In the past, schools had to actively pursue desegregation initiatives to meet certain minority population percentages. Now, such initiatives are purely voluntary.

"You can't use the words 'integration' and 'desegregation' interchangeably," cautioned Trent. Doing so doesn't address the differences, he explained, pointing out that desegregation requires active planning, while integration requires active leadership. Throughout his presentation, Trent remarked that we have not adequately prepared educators to effectively manage desegregation to successfully achieve integration.

Minority student performance declines over time

One of the most disheartening pieces of evidence in Trent's and others' research is that black student achievement declines from elementary to middle to high school, and that regardless of socioeconomic status, blacks performed well below (usually 10 points) below their white counterparts. Trent suspects this is because students of various races become more "different" the longer they remain in school.

He's done research that shows that minority students confront lower expectations. Trent did a study that used teacher efficacy (experience) as a variable. Minority student achievement was lower in schools with less experienced teachers. "We haven't prepared teachers to deal with the rich mix of students they are getting today," he told his audience of about 100 school administrators, advocacy group members and the general public. He added that teacher efficacy influences how important the race variable is in student performance.

Benefits of integration

One of the benefits of desegregation is the increased probability of students eventually working in a mixed-race environment. While Trent suggested that this is not necessarily surprising, it's important to many employers' goals of achieving a harmonious, diverse workforce and for minorities to have access to such opportunities as the chance to attend elite colleges and to work for employers who recruit at those colleges.

Adverse effects of tracking

"Voluntary national tests shouldn't be used to slot students into ineffective education programs," Trent said vehemently. He's concerned that tests are used to put minorities into less challenging educational programs while their white peers gain access to better schools, better programs and better teachers. "Where there are high concentrations of poverty and minorities, there are generally fewer resources, since more experienced teachers are attracted to schools with more resources." Trent is the author of, High Stakes: Testing for tracking, promotion and graduation, which was published by the National Academy Press.

After Trent concluded his remarks, IRP Executive Director john powell led a panel discussion, giving educators, an advocate, a high school student and the audience a chance to respond to his remarks. "The new desegregation rule represents a tremendous change in policy," said Bruce Vandal of the Minnesota Minority Education Partnership. I'm surprised that there hasn't been an outpouring of opposition to the rule." He suggested that since the new rule suggests that the state values integration, supporters should mobilize to influence the Legislature to appropriate resources to promote voluntary desegregation. "If it's going to happen, it's got to happen with us!"

"In the past 30 years, minority enrollment in the St. Paul Public Schools has grown from about 5 to 60 percent," Central High School Principal Mary Mackbee told the audience. While Central is a successful urban high school, it has had difficulty attracting minority students to its more challenging programs, including the International Baccalaureate program.

Mackbee has tried to remedy this by trying to attract staff members of color to lead the program and by making the curriculum less Eurocentric. She suspects that peer pressure may be what's keeping most minority students out of the more challenging programs offered by her school.

The panel's student representative, Raisha Williams, said she thinks family expectations are at fault. "It's not installed in you to become a pilot or an architect," she said. "Most families just want their kids to get a regular job."

Raising minority student achievement

Panelist Joan Franks, a principal at Armatage Elementary in South Minneapolis, reported that when test results showed that most minority students at her school would not pass the Eighth Grade Minnesota Basic Standards Test, parents and staff rallied. The set a school-wide goal of raising the scores for students of color. By instituting such programs as volunteer tutors and reading groups for different levels of readers, they were able to boost the scores of minority students. "They pursued a strategy and succeeded," Franks reported proudly.

Analysis of programs and policies to combat poverty and segregation published by IRP

"Concentrated Poverty and Racial Segregation: Evaluating Programs and Policies" analyzed several emerging forms of regional government in Portland, Albuquerque, Indianapolis, and the Twin Cities. The project also studied metropolitan attempts to address inequities in Chicago, Cleveland, and Milwaukee. Finally, it examined several educational policies and programs created to counteract America's crisis in central city education and close the gap of segregation between central city/inner-ring suburbs and outer-ring suburbs.

Some cities have adopted regional strategies to break down geographic barriers to housing, education, employment, and wealth creation for low-income communities of color. The strategies coincide with "in-place" strategies like urban community development, which aim to move resources and opportunities into urban neighborhoods of color. Although in-place strategies have an integral role in revitalizing inner-city neighborhoods, they lack the power and resources necessary to effectively combat the overwhelming history and trends of segregation, according to the report. The report was funded by the Mott Foundation.

Concentrated Poverty report released in September

To describe concentrated poverty, and explain the different factors that play a role in it, IRP has completed Concentrated Poverty: Causes, Effects and Solutions. [ITALS] The report sums up the causes of concentrated poverty, its effects on society, and makes some policy suggestions to alleviate it.

The quantitative definition of concentrated poverty is an area with 40 percent or more of its residents having incomes below the federally defined poverty line. Under this definition, nearly 5 percent of all metropolitan residents and over 30 percent (collectively) of all minority metro residents live in concentrated poverty.

Concentrated poverty is caused by factors such as racism, political fragmentation, urban sprawl, housing issues (exclusionary zoning, home ownership/mortgage availability issues, affordable/public housing programs), lopsided wealth creation opportunities, inequitable educational resources and so forth. All of these issues are interrelated.

The report recommends some remedies for concentrated poverty and racial segregation, such as containing urban sprawl, creating affordable housing, and eliminating political fragmentation. It also cautions that this is not enough-subsequent steps and simultaneous focus on related issues are also necessary. When all is said and done, strategies that address concentrated poverty, racial segregation and other related issues should be holistic in nature and scope. They must be broad to reverse harmful regional trends and powerful to overcome the resistance of socioeconomic-political entities.

Welfare Summit report now includes research and analysis

The full report on "Welfare to Work: How are we doing? Where do we go from here?" is now available. It now includes in-depth sections analyzing several significant barriers to unemployment: education/job training, the nature of the employment market, spatial issues, racial/ethnic issues, and the culture of the system.

For a copy, please e-mail the Institute at irp@tc.umn.edu or call (612) 625-8071. Or visit our Web site: http://www.umn.edu/irp.

During the last quarter, IRP has received commitments from these funders for these projects: $300,000 over three years from the McKnight Foundation to support Opportunity Mapping for the Twin Cities region; $200,000 over two years from the Ford Foundation for general operating support; and $50,000 over three years from the Rockefeller Foundation to engage minority communities in regional planning throughout the nation.

Meet IRP Advisory Board Member Dorreen Yellow Bird

"I got involved with the Institute because it is an organization that deals with issues that affect all minority and ethnic groups," says Dorreen Yellow Bird, an editorial writer at the Grand Forks Herald. "It is one of the few places that can effectively examine issues and suggest solutions without the shackles of government funding."

Yellow Bird describes her position on the board as a crucial one for many reasons. First, she considers herself a necessary voice for the Native American viewpoint, both nationally and locally. In addition to reviewing IRP materials and providing evaluation and input, she also works as a liaison with Native Americans, often with people living on reservations. Second, she recognizes the unique relationship of Native Americans and the federal government. "Native American issues are culturally different, especially in relation to state and federal governments, because of their sovereign status," Yellow Bird says.

Among key areas of interest to Yellow Bird are housing, economic development, education and racism. Although IRP has not studied tribal reservations in the Minnesota/North Dakota/South Dakota region yet, Yellow Bird has strong interests in the race and poverty connections these communities experience, especially given new funding streams from Native American-owned casinos.

While many believe casinos could be the solution to Native American poverty, this, however, has yet to be proven. Yellow Bird has a graduate degree in Education and an undergraduate degree in Education, Art and English. She is the former development director of the Native American Law Center at the University of North Dakota.

John Calmore publishes article on role of lawyers

IRP Board Member John Calmore, professor at the North Carolina University School of Law at Chapel Hill, N.C., published an article on the interplay of race, space and poverty and the importance of taking race and economic status into consideration when serving as legal counsel to poor, minority people. In the article's introduction, Calmore wrote: "I argue that effective representation must collaborate with these clients not only to represent them, but also to represent their place and communities as well."
The article was published in April by the Fordham Law Review.

IRP News and Views

. . . Sprawl is "the most important civil rights issue of the '90s."

From a news article in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel - June 3, 1999

john powell, a professor at the University of Minnesota's Law School, told a conference in Milwaukee on June 2 that sprawl is "the most important civil rights issue of the '90s." powell said that sprawl -- scattered development outside of urban service boundaries -- worsens the mismatch between suburban jobs and unemployed inner-city residents, perpetuates segregation and widens economic and educational inequities. If the problem is not controlled, he warned, "there is no hope for racial justice."

He emphasized that sprawl is not an accidental phenomenon. It is rooted in federal policies of the 1930s and '40s that subsidized low-cost loans for housing in the suburbs, preferred new units over old ones, and openly promoted racial homogeneity. By the 1950s, subsidies for suburban highways had exacerbated the problem, fueling white flight from the cities just at the time when southern blacks were moving north in response to labor shortages. "The fragmentation that accompanied sprawl created a racial space where whites could deny equal opportunities to blacks and other minorities," he said.

One of his solutions: Promote metropolitan-wide government to break up segregated school districts and distribute resources more equitably. powell conceded that some African-American leaders are reluctant to push for such regionalism because it tends to dilute their power. But a middle-class housing, tax and school base is essential to curb sprawl and its ills, he said.

Additional remedies, he said, include requiring that a percentage of land be set aside in new developments for affordable housing; sharing the growth in commercial tax bases among suburban and urban counties, as the Twin Cities has done; and ending tax lures for businesses to move from one jurisdiction to another.

Residential segregation is closely tied to economic segregation

From a commentary by John Telford, IRP advisor, and john powell in the Detroit Free Press - May 5, 1999

Many of the most persistent problems of metro Detroit will go unaddressed -- and uncorrected -- unless we address the issue of racial segregation. Residential segregation is closely tied to economic segregation -- and the phenomenon known as "concentrated poverty," when more than 40 percent of the people in a given census tract are living on incomes below the poverty standard …

Although blacks hold the political reins in their segregated neighborhoods, they are increasingly isolated from state electoral politics, which are under the control of the white-dominated suburbs.

Using data from a 1977 study by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, [IRP Board Member] George Galster of Wayne State University found that white discrimination sets the pattern of racial residential change. His findings confirm that skin color is the organizing determinant of urban housing markets. Race dominates all other factors that impact upon where, and with whom, Americans live. Galster also found that discrimination not only leads to segregation, but segregation lowers its victims' economic status.

Residential segregation deprives its victims of access to benefits that are distributed via housing markets. It is also crucial to understanding how this pattern of impoverishment devastated many metropolitan areas. Black renters and buyers had less money than white residents to start with, and their efforts to keep up their neighborhoods were hindered by discrimination by banks and insurance companies. A growing number of homeowners and landlords became afraid to invest in property maintenance or improvement, leaving their holdings to deteriorate.

This process of robbing resources form the urban core, leaving concentrated poverty behind and pushing the region's edges ever outward could not have occurred without substantial public and private subsidies. Nor can this process be changed without a significant shift in public and private policies and practices.